We get more wines from Hungary in the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s Vintage releases than we do from the Tejo region which runs behind and parallel to the Lisboa wine region.
One has arrived like a spaceship in Ontario and it’s a Quinta da Escusa. It is a white blend of the dry Arinto and Moscatel a heavier and more flavourful grape. It will be interesting if we are getting an off dry wine here.
On the nose you can smell the Moscatel out duelling the Arinto! There is peach, apricot, honey, pineapple and butterscotch. On the palate this is a dry wine without much character. You are getting on the palate the same influences you get on the nose but it is dilute and diffuse. I don’t usually comment on tannins when trying white wine but the cheeks are getting a dose of tannins and the wine has a certain funkiness to it. I am sorry to say this but this wine doesn’t know whether it is coming or going. Even with the discounted price way overpriced.
(Quinta da Escusa Branco 2016, Vinho Regional Tejo, Romana Vini, Portugal $ 31.85 (Manager’s Special $22.15), Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 736172, 750 mL, 12.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 84/100).